


Choosing Their Futures

by DesertVixen



Category: Descendants (2015)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Immediately Post-Canon, OT4, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 23:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7194713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Immediately after Descendants (2015).  Introspection about the school year, and maybe something more...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choosing Their Futures

**Author's Note:**

  * For [paperclipbitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperclipbitch/gifts).



One thing was for sure, Mal told herself.

They could not go back to the Isle of the Lost. Not after they had turned the Mistress of All Evil into a little lizard.

They didn’t want to go back. Maybe none of them had been thrilled by the idea of attending Auradon Prep, but now it was their place. Maybe people still didn’t totally trust them, even after they had proven themselves in the coronation hall, but at least no one in Auradon would try to kill them. More importantly, they each had a place here where they belonged.

Mal would never forget the sound of Ben’s mother calling out for her to be careful, or the look in the Fairy Godmother’s eyes when she had given Mal Ben’s ring back. It was still difficult for her to realize that people cared about her, that she was more than just a pawn. Almost as difficult as it had been for her to realize that she cared about people. 

Mal had never had anyone who really loved her, not until she came to Auradon. Maybe because she had never let anyone inside her defenses, until she had no choice. The other three had been accomplices and friends, but now they shared something more – something that Mal knew could never be broken. 

And of course, she had Ben. The memory of that moment, when he’d brushed his lips against her hand after telling her he hadn’t been faking anything, still made her feel shivery. 

Sometimes Mal wondered what would have happened if she had been able to get the wand away from Jane before her recklessness caused the barrier over the Isle to break. Ben had said that their parents could not reach them here, with the supreme confidence that a lifetime of good seemed to have given him. He had been wrong – but until that horrible green smoke began swirling in the hall, none of them had known that the barrier had been breached. 

Fairy Godmother had repaired the barrier, so Auradon was safe. This was not the ending Mal had planned for – she had always intended to return to the Isle, wand in hand. Yet when she had held it in her hands, she had been unable to do so. It was as if the wand gave her the power to choose good, gave her the power to finally be stronger than her mother’s dark magic. 

Mal had looked up and seen her friends’ places in the balcony empty, and somehow she had known that they weren’t carrying out the steps she had outlined the night before. 

They were coming to stand by her, no matter what. 

And she had needed them, she knew. If the four of them hadn’t been able to work together, Maleficent would have won. Mal had felt a little ridiculous, doing battle against a dragon with no armor, only a fancy dress, but now she felt as if it had been her own sort of armor – one made with love by Evie.

Then the moment where Maleficent had cast her spell and left the whole hall trapped, with Ben in mid-roar and mid-charge – rushing to her aid, even though he had no weapons. He had told her once that the crown didn’t make a person a king, and she had responded with a joke. She was sure now, however, that whatever made a man a king, Ben had it inside him. 

Mal didn’t think she’d ever forget feeling a sinking dread that somehow, her mother’s plans for Auradon would be worse than what she had done to Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom.

Now, she didn’t know what to expect. Would they be trapped here in summer school, taking extra classes to catch up? After all, Auradon Prep was a boarding school. Or maybe they would be going home with classmates and visiting – always assuming, of course, that parents agreed. Mal could only imagine those conversations. She was sure parents were lining up to volunteer…or not.

Right now, however, she and Evie were leaving to go up to the enchanted lake. Mal needed to talk with her best friend, and she couldn’t imagine any better place for them to get some privacy.

*** *** 

They slipped out after sliding a note under the door to Jay and Carlos’ room. Mal was sure they would eventually follow them. She was able to remember the path that she’d taken with Ben to the little ruined temple-like area on the lakeshore, and before long she and Evie were there. 

“Apple?” Evie offered, digging around in the basket of food she had gotten her hands on.

“As long as it’s from you and not your mother,” Mal said.

Evie rolled her eyes, then leaned back with an apple of her own. “So…where do we go from here?”

“I don’t know,” Mal said after a long moment. “I notice my mother didn’t bring anyone else with her.”

“I’m really glad we get to stay,” Evie finally said. “I miss my mother, but I don’t want to go back to the Isle.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

“So what’s the deal with the lake?” Evie said, breaking the silence.

Mal told her about how it had washed away the love spell she had cast on Ben. True, Mal hadn’t felt anything strange when she had been in the water herself, but she wondered if it had also played a part in her choice to be good. There were so many factors – or maybe it had just been in her all along.

Meanwhile, Evie was looking at the lake. At first, she saw only her own reflection, her dark hair caught back in a loose bun, one curl hanging loose along her face, a little tired after not much sleep – the coronation celebration had gone on until nearly dawn.

Then the water rippled slightly, despite the lack of a breeze. Suddenly, she saw herself, but more formally dressed, as she had been the night before. She saw Jay and Ben, swords in hand, fighting back to back, while Mal stood off to the side, her eyes gleaming green with power, purple sparks at her fingertips. Carlos was there as well, shielding someone – she couldn’t tell who – with his slim body. It was clear they were fighting someone, but Evie couldn’t tell who – or whether or not they were going to win…

The sounds of Jay and Carlos crashing up the path brought Evie back to reality. Mal was looking at her oddly, as if she wanted to ask Evie what the problem was. Evie shook her head sharply – this was not the time to talk about it. She was curious now, about just what kind of enchantment the lake was under. Perhaps Doug could help her with some research… 

“I can’t believe you two are already up,” Carlos said with a yawn.

“We needed some space,” Mal said. 

They talked for at least an hour before Ben found them, as Mal had expected. The big thing they had agreed on was finding a way for Evie and Jay to communicate more frequently with their parents. 

Carlos was content to not deal with his mother at the moment, and Mal couldn’t argue. Her own mother might have been power-mad and wicked, cursing entire kingdoms and trying to conquer everything that was beautiful and good, but Carlos’ mother Cruella was just nuts. 

Ben dropped down on the ground next to her, and Mal let herself lean against him, marveling at how natural it felt now to have his arm around her – now that she knew it was real, not magic-induced.

“So I’ve been thinking,” Ben told the group, “I want to bring another group from the Isle to Auradon. I think the four of you have proved my idea wasn’t such a bad one.”

The four of them looked at each other, and none of them could stop the laughter from erupting.

“It worked out for the best,” Jay said when he was able to speak. None of them wanted to tell Ben all the many ways it could have gone wrong – including the way they had planned for it to go wrong. 

The past was past, and the future was theirs to make here in Auradon.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I initially was going to go the zany route, but I kept coming back to this. I love the OT4-friendship/family thing they have going on, and I was excited to get a chance to write it.


End file.
